The United States' Authorities Ought to Become Enforcers of the General Public License (GPL) for National Security's Sake
US federal agencies ought to pursue availability of code and GPL compliance (copyleft), not bans
Background: Free Software Licence Compliance is About Security Too
ONE important point that we wish to repeat very often (see above for a further or more detailed explanation) is that a culture or cult of GPL violations (Microsoft champions this) is a major threat to computer security. Developers do not patch code because they don't work upstream and don't keep abreast of holes in code they adopted. If only they properly participated in code/projects they had decided to embrace...
At the moment we see that the "US govt. is considering a ban on Amazon's bestselling router brand" or "US could ban best-selling TP-Link routers over national security concerns" or "US investigating China’s TP-Link and could ban its routers next year".
The first of these says that "Washington is investigating TP-Link for national security reasons, with some sources saying a ban for the popular router brand is in the works." The second says: "If US authorities instate a ban, it could happen as early as next year." The third says there's an "investigation, which is being led by the Justice Department, [that] focuses on whether TP-Link has used anticompetitive product pricing practices."
The original is in the Wall Street Journal and thus behind a paywall. We thus rely on summaries or gists.
A lot of these issues could instead be resolved by transparency or forcing these routers to run Free software everyone can audit, modify etc.
"Apropos the routers," an associate noted (calling the firmware and system "stolen Linux"), "the stolen nature of the software on the routers leads to the security failure due to no updates (laziness, stinginess, etc)."
"However, it would be cheaper and less work, to just sell the damn things with OpenWRT installed and configured so that the routers can be updated."
"That makes sense because no matter how bad the router's security is, people will refuse to buy a new one until actually forced to.
"At least by using OpenWRT, the vendor ensures a decent experience and thus increases the company's reputation among buyers."
Don't expect any such lobbying by the Linux Foundation (LF), which is working for Bill Gates and for GPL violations (and even clickfraud*).
This is a serious problem that Torvalds will not or cannot publicly acknowledge (it would be a CoC violation of some kind in somebody's eye). Frauds tend to protect other frauds. Because they're afraid they might get caught and punished. So they gang up against those who call them out on it.
Sadly, at the moment almost nobody defends the GPL except the FSF. SFC you say? No, they are busy attacking the FSF, hoping to defund the FSF this way. SFC is working with the LF and is cut from the same cloth; they're basically professional liars and cheaters who try to get ahead by swimming next to sharks - Microsoft included - and lying along while seeking to 'cancel' or silence their critics.
Those who value GPL enforcement should donate to (or join) the FSF, whose fund-raiser has just crossed $205,000:
FSF money can be used to protect the GPL while the LF helps Microsoft outsource code to the world's biggest GPL violation machine (GitHub).
In a better if not ideal world the US government would step in and protect the GPL in the name of national security. However, in the world we live in the likes of Bill Gates control public officials and thus policy. █
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* Today we've noticed that Spamnil is paying even more for clickfraud (now it's like 99% of the "views" are fake). It's not hilarious because he is in effect defrauding people and startups, not just gaming Google with clickfraud. And perhaps unsurprisingly Gulagboy stepped in to defend this. See, according to him you're NOT a journalist if you DO call out the FRAUDS. Just repost press releases and then clickfraud your own spam. That's "journalism"...